Is local food greener? McDonald’s isn’t so sure

Interesting interview conducted by Bloomberg with Bob Langert, the vice president of sustainability for McDonald’s. (Now, there’s a tough job.) Couple of tidbits: The company “can’t say” the beef it buys is sustainable, but agrees there’s a trend of global consumers wanting to know where their food comes from.

From all the studies that I’ve seen – to say that local always means more efficient – I don’t believe that’s the case. We’ve done our analysis of transportation impacts. It’s one of the smallest slices there is, in terms of our own profile. Sometimes it can be more efficient to do it elsewhere and use transportation to move it somewhere else because the production is more efficient. For instance, I’m in the U.S., so we’re looking to buy within the U.S. You’re only going to get potatoes, beef, and lettuce in certain parts of the country. To us, that’s buying locally.